The Upper James 



boxwood at Elk Hill shows better and more consistent care than 

 any in Virginia, excepting, perhaps, Mount Vernon, 



Seven terraces fall vertically below these evergreen groupings, 

 and upon the topmost stand twenty-seven conical box trees, ranging 

 in height from ten to twenty feet, their soaring, dark green, glit- 

 tering foliage standing out against the skyline. In lines of four, 

 three, two and one, these trees grow ten feet apart, and below 

 them, but still on the same terrace, a semi-circular grassy plateau 

 hedged with dwarf box extends. From this, the six terraces of the 

 kitchen garden, each grassed as it falls, drop to the lowest, which 

 once was given over entirely to the cultivation of box. 



To Randolph Harrison is given the credit for the beginning 

 of the Elk Hill garden, which is supposed to have been laid off 

 about 1840. There is a local legend that after the seven terraces 

 were made, in order to enrich them, with the aid of teams of oxen, 

 he had soil hauled from an island in James River, nearly a mile 

 away. With this fertile soil he topped each terrace, with a result 

 that has proven it well worth while. 



The proportion of box to the other shi-ubbery at Elk Hill and 

 the scheme of its distribution are as correct and effective for con- 

 trast and background to the transient foliage and flowers of June 

 as amid the bare ramage of January. Both winter and summer, 

 as the gravest item in the garden, the box retains its values and 

 gives the year round a note both virile and conservative. There 

 is a French saying, "Evergreens are the joy of winter and the 

 mourning of summer months." Even if this be true, those who 

 see it will agree that the effect of spring and summer color is 

 doubled at Elk Hill by its splendid box, which, though dusky in 

 winter, with spring, or "the sweet of the year," becomes bright with 

 tender, green leaves. And all this box, even on dull days, makes 

 the bright flowers look as if the sun were shining. 



One reason latter-day Americans garden along lines of least re- 

 sistance is that they are always in a hurry. The garden art is pre- 

 eminently one of leisure. The designers of Elk Hill knew this, 



[133] 



